Abstract
Purpose :
Eye injuries are the leading cause of vision loss for children in the US. Many of these injuries are preventable. We aim to determine whether the COVID-19 associated quarantine resulted in fewer and less severe pediatric ocular injuries.
Methods :
We conducted a retrospective review of patients with adnexal, anterior segment, posterior segment, and penetrating ocular injuries requiring surgical repair presenting between March 1- June 1, 2019 and March 1-June 1, 2020 to a tertiary referral pediatric emergency center.
Results :
17 patients in 2019 compared to 15 in 2020 required surgery for ocular trauma during this time period. Average age was 7.27 (2019) and 9.58 (2020), and 15/17 (2019) and 11/15 (2020) were males. In both 2019 and 2020, the majority of cases were adnexal (88% and 53% respectively), most injuries were related to sharp objects (65% and 93%) and the most common etiology was animal related (35% and 53%, respectively). While not statistically significant, there was a trend toward a higher number of animal- and pencil-related injuries in 2020 compared to 2019. There was no significant difference in patient race/ethnicity, Medicaid status, age, or gender between 2019 and 2020, and, although there were fewer surgeries in 2020, the difference was not significant. However, there was a significant increase in number of patients in 2020 having last-recorded visual acuities worse than 20/40 in the injured eye with no patients in 2019, and 5 (33%) in 2020 having worse visual acuity.
Conclusions :
Quarantine restrictions, with a decrease in organized sports and in-person school, did not significantly change characteristics of pediatric ocular injuries requiring surgical repair in our patient population, although a trend toward increased animal- and pencil-related injuries could be related to more indoor activity. Substantial risk of vision-threatening injury occurs even with the absence of in-person school and organized sporting activity which may be associated with increased eye injury severity.
This is a 2021 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.